By Expanding Sainthood, Pope Reflects New Anti-Christian Reality

By creating a new pathway to sainthood for the "offer of life," meaning giving up one's life for others, Pope Francis in effect has short-circuited a longstanding debate about many victims of contemporary anti-Christian persecution, which is whether their deaths were strictly for religious motives, and thus in keeping with the traditional test for martyrdom of being killed "in odium fidei," or "hatred of the faith."